Oh My Goodness, An Interview

The 5P s

Prior Preparedness Prevents Poor Performance. Man, I cannot believe I remember that. 28 years ago I had a manager that made it his mantra. He was a great manager. Along with time management is king it is an essential for any mantra toolkit of success. So, repeat after me .

Interviews are scary (well, for some)

And you know they really shouldn t be. I am not ignoring that interviews should not get your heart racing and provide some adrenaline. But they should not make you anxious. Anxious people do not perform well. You should be stimulating the will to fight, not flight. These get-togethers, that s what they are really, should result in a meeting of minds. There should be a constructive dialogue: not just a chat or at worse an interrogation.

The goal should be agreement on a way forward or a way out the door with a polite, thanks, but the position/ company is not a good fit .

To make this important decision it is necessary to have a game plan. And game plans require thoughtfulness and internal insight. And that requires some downtime for the brain to sift through your inner thoughts to the core issue: what is it that I am actually looking for?

We tend to drift towards the obvious indicators regarding interviews: what is your work history and educational background for those entering the job market or you have a broad and rich history, tell me about it , for those with, you got it, a broad and rich work history. Don t fall into this trap. An interviewer can read your CV/ resume so don t insult them by repeating what they already know.

Opening Salvo

I have found that the opening question is significant. Please take note if you are involved in regularly interviewing people. Your interviewee will form some lasting first impressions of you and your company if you start the interview with a weak opener.

One of the best openers I have experienced goes something like this, so, I have seen your CV and it is in black and white. Please feel free to provide some colour, starting wherever you d like . It provided me with the opportunity to create a powerful picture of my experiences, show who I really was and to create an immediate impression without being led along a track I did not wish to follow. I have actually turned this around and suggested starting an interview like this. It is a wonderful way to find out how flexible and competent your interviewer is. It is your 60 second pitch in the first couple of sentences of a discussion.

You need to have a selection of openers. Having a standard response is not good enough. Look around you, soak up the atmosphere, the people, the corporate icons and the person sitting in front of you. Dig into your bag and select carefully. First impressions do actually count. I am an ATCK (Adult Third Culture Kid) so I tend to draw from that side of things.

What the hell do I actually want?

Like I initially stated, spend some quality time actually thinking about what you want. This is called reflection. And reflection on experiences creates wisdom.

Dan Pink, HR guru and author, suggests we need mastery, autonomy and purpose in our working lives. If you are interviewing then one, or a number of these, is lacking and making you unhappy/ discontent with your present position. Think about that before you start interviewing. It helps you remain in command and in control of the direction you want the interview to take. You will also not sound whimsical.

Red Flags

Red flags. Yep, red flags. I have three of these. If they all go up then I am out of there. These are part of the filtering process I go through during an interview. These are raised when the warning alarm signals start to go off.

I have a professionally produced CV/ resume. There is sufficient, succinct detail without needing to repeat it all. Probing deeper into it is fine and expected to a certain extent. It is designed to be a conversation piece. My first red flag goes up when people start at the top and intend to go from one position to the next. Really? That s unimaginative and pedantic. Part of the process of figuring out exactly what it is you are looking for, is knowing exactly what you are not looking for. I attach my red flags to the four things that make me go no thanks . The first I have just described. The others are the motivational aspects of a job: a personal training budget that I have total control over, autonomy and a truly open discussion philosophy. Personally, I run from micromanagement.

Filters

Filtering is crucial. It structures and orders what is being said. I create a mental filtering system before I go for interview. Again this is based on what I actually want and provides me with the information I need to move forward. I imagine how the conversation will unfold. Filtering helps me to sift through the discussion and identify important areas for immediate attention, going back to or for further discussion. My filters are set to a running play sheet during the interview: tick, cross, tick good, bad, indifferent. Red flags are set off through this filtering process.

What s important to you, what s important to them?

Give ten people ten issues. Ask them to order from most important through least important and you get ten different lists. Each list has the same content but the order is different. People overlook this element during interviews as you get caught up in the cut and thrust of question/ answer/ conversation. I have a mental numbering system for this. If the conversation is directed to certain areas of discussion by the interviewer then it is pretty obvious these are the areas of importance (e.g. procedural over conceptual skills, personal creativity over groupthink/ group cohesion, independence over conformity). I use this process as my initial red flag indicator. These are often the overlaying philosophical frameworks of the company e.g. we encourage people to create new ideas and value it so much that we .

TQ = IQ+SQ+CQ+EQ

Nope, not maths. Thank goodness. In simple terms TQ is your total quotient: overall intelligence level. IQ we are all familiar with. It relates to academic ability. EQ relates to your emotional maturity and ability to respond at an age appropriate level. SQ relates to your sociability and CQ to your cultural awareness and exposure to different cultural experiences. Be aware of this when interviewing and make sure you incorporate a demonstration of each of these areas into your game plan. If the interviewer doesn t give you the chance to do this, by directly prompting or giving you the discussion space to elaborate then filter this red flag it if necessary and if critical, walk away.

I work internationally so I would expect to find people with highly developed CQ s and above average SQ. I have been interviewed online by people who haven t the sense to turn on a light so I can see them properly. SQ red flag .

Wrap Up

Remember, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. You don t want to find your next employer is a shocker. To minimise the chances of this happening in the first three months (probation period applies both ways) you need an interview game plan. Start that process now.